This is a peppery soup that for sure will warm you up during cold winter days. My mom taught me how to clean and prepare pig stomach– after cleaning, we partially cook in a dry wok until the surface is a little brown, and thus enhance the flavor. Usually restaurants don’t do the browning step, but it does make a difference in taste. If the pig stomach scares you, just use peppercorns with spare ribs or even chicken, and becomes peppery chicken soup.

Add water and crushed peppercorns to a deep pot and bring to a boil. Let it boil for several minutes so the flavor of peppercorn comes out. Meanwhile, blanch spare ribs in a separate pot. Remove ribs and wash off any impurities.

Add ribs to the deep pot. Cover and cook on high heat for 15 minutes. Turn heat down to medium, add pig stomach. Continue cooking for another 2- 2.5 hours. Add more water if necessary. The soup should look cloudy at this point. Add salt to taste. Before serving, cut pig stomach into strips.

Preparing pig stomach:

Pig stomach from the Asian grocery stores are cleaned pretty good and not as disgusting, but still, it requires some extra cleaning at home to make it more enjoyable:

Wash pig stomach briefly and trim off any fat.

Sprinkle generous amount of salt all over pig stomach, rub it with your hands. Then sprinkle generous amount of corn starch/ tapioca starch and rub with your hands again. Then use a knife to scrap off the pig stomach inside and out. Pay attention to parts where there are folds and scrap it good. Rinse well. If after rinsing the pig stomach still feels very slimy then repeat this step. It’s okay though if it feels a little slimy. Make sure the inner side (the side that looks like skin and has folds) is facing out. Drain.

Heat up a dry clean wok on high heat. With the inner side out, put pig stomach to the wok– it will make a very loud noise due to water contact with high heat but don’t worry. Liquid will start to draw out for the first few minutes. Discard the liquid so the wok remains dry. Brown the surface of pig stomach, pressing down with a spatula on the parts that have folds, to prevent shrinking and promote browning. Pig stomach will stick to the wok so move it around from time to time. Flip over and brown the other side.

Wash pig stomach and scrap the “skin” with a knife again. At this point the pig stomach should not feel slimy at all. Drain and it’s ready to use or keep in freezer. Please note pig stomach is only PARTIALLY COOKED and requires further cooking.